The Sun Still Shines, Just Not Right Now
Posted by paul | Filed under Photography Articles
With all the rain of late, I felt it would be a great idea to post some shots that were taken during the brief dry spell we had in June and early July. I tend to try to get up to Petit Jean as often as I can mainly since it’s so close to Little Rock. I have taken photos all over the state of Arkansas, but I still find Petit Jean to have some of my favorite spots. The main issue with Petit Jean is the large number of people that will be there really at anytime of the year, except the dead of winter. You have to work your shooting around them and find spots less frequently favored (ones that are not just 10 feet away from a car).
Early in the Morning you can get one of the best sunrises from Petit Jean. If you are lucky, you will catch the Arkansas river valley fully encased in fog. The sun will rise over the fog and make for a excellent shot. Make sure to get there at least 30 minutes before sunrise to allow you to get setup. The grave site of Petit Jean is one of the best spots but there are other less known ones. If you just drive past the turn off to Petit Jean’s grave and then then turn towards the Winrock Conference area you will find some great spots along the road. You get the same valley view, but with some more encompassing trees. Once at the grave site, move around the big rocks until you find a spot where you can feature the rocks and the sunrise. Don’t just limit yourself to the top, look around for cracks and crevases that make for more unique photos.
This shot which was taken from the grave site is looking due west. The rocks here will come alive in the morning as the sun hits them. You might have to take some of the more harsh graffiti off in Photoshop, but that seems to be a necessary evil up there. The early folks were content to just carve in the rocks, but spray paint has taken over as the main method to deface the rocks. This shot was taken as a series, HDR (high dynamic range) and then combined into one large negative. I use a different method than most people to work my HDR, developed by Timothy Farr and have found it to provide the best results. This shot was taken with a Canon 5D MKII, with a 24-70 lens at 24mm.
The sky that morning was an amazing shade of of blue and it faded from a dark to almost turquoise color that was broken by a slight band of red right at the horizon line. One issue you can have with any HDR work is movement. Wind noise as I call it. If there is a good breeze blowing you can pretty much forget working with traditional HDR methods as the leaves will never line up. When this happens I work with a method I learned from Todd Smith from Little Rock. This allows you to take parts from from several of the image to create the final version. You also have to watch the clouds as they are moving and can blur also. Your eye will most likely not pick this movement up.
Since Cedar Falls was dry, (surprising due to all the rain), I drove over to Mather lodge. I am big fan of the trail that runs from Mather Lodge to both Cedar Falls and the Blue hole. It has non stop photo opportunities and is full of Dogwoods. The visita from Mather lodge features the canyon that has been created by Cedar Falls Creek. You can see the cliffs on the left that are part of the Bear Cave area. This morning there was a good amount of sunlight lighting the valley. However as I stood there some low hanging clouds started to move up the valley and within 5 minutes the entire look of the valley had changed.
This shot is a what I call a slight pano. It was taken from two frames from a medium format back in the Landscape mode. The medium format back is a 4:3 ratio and lends itselft well to this type of work. I worked the two frames up independently and then combined them in Photoshop. Photoshop does an good job on this type of work and can correct for a lot of the optical errors that can occur. Within 5 more minutes, the clouds were gone and the valley was back to normal light. You can see from the various trees, that everything was very lush almost like a rain forest.
The cliffs on the right side can be reached from the road that cross Cedar Creek near the campgrounds.
Boxley Valley Report and early signs of fall
Posted by paul | Filed under Photography Articles
Last week I was able to get up to the Boxley Valley and do some shooting. I had hoped to catch the fog at Roark Bluff, but on this morning there was no fog. The skies were very overcast and really did not hold that much promise for photography of the Steel Creek area, so I headed back to Ponca and the millpond. On the way, I found a smallpatch of fog, just as the sun was starting to come up over the bluff line and shot these two images. Both feature a large post oak that was near Hwy 74 on the way down to Ponca.
Here is the 2nd image.
Both of these were hand held at around 1/30 of a second and I was glad to see that both came out OK. There was a bit of noise in the darker areas which did surprise me since I was shooting at ISO 125. However the shadows were considerably darker in the raw file, as I was more concerned about blowing out the highlight of the sun in the fog. So far the Canon 5D MKII has been very forgiving in regards to noise as long as the ISO is kept below 2000.
After this series of shots, I headed over to the millpond. Michael Dougherty, of ArkansasNaturePhotography.com had mentioned to me that there was a lot of wildlife activity around this area. He was right!. I spent the next 4 hours working around the millpond. To those that don’t know where I am talking about, the millpond is about 2/3′s of the way to the Hwy 21/43 junction and is the pond that is associated with the “old mill” that is now off limits (I would love to get back there).
The millpond is known for the Trumpeter Swans that are permanent residents, but it also has an amazing number of other animals that frequent it. While I was there, I was able to photography two types of hawk, some blue wing teal (amazing results), several song birds, hummingbirds, monarch butterflies, and a beaver. In the winter eagles can often be found in the snags. One of Michael’s best shots of an eagle was taken here last winter.
I had planned on shooting the Elk, but at this time of day, they were not out. They have been frequenting the replanted fields near the Hwy 21/43 area, fields I know well. So after working the Millpond I headed back to Steel Creek to see if the sun had come out on Roark Bluff. The sun was starting to poke out of the clouds at the millpond so I had high hopes. Unfortunately, by the time I got to Steel Creek, the clounds were back and it was starting to rain. I made a quick decision to go ahead and hike to the top of Roark, one of my favorite (and everyone else) spots. The downside to this hike is ticks. This year the seed ticks have been terrible each time I have hiked to the top of Roark bluff. Really terrible, around 100 or so visible on me by the time I got to the summit. The problem IMO is that the horse traffic on the trail along the Buffalo has given the ticks a year round supply of food. Plus the area is so overgrown right now, with plants over my head, as you walk through there and brush up against the plants, the ticks just drop off on you. I dreaded the hike back, knowing I would have as many on me by the time I got back. I am not sure what the solution is, as had sprayed a large amount of deet on my legs, neck, and arms. If you have a dog, I would not take them in this area right now as they will be misreable.
As I got to the summit, the sun started to back light the clouds so, I went ahead and set up. I ended up taking a lot of shots as the light kept changing. Here is a shot from the summit, time of day is around 2:30 pm, taken with a Medium format digital back. Right before the shot, 3 deer were down in the fields, but by the time I got ready to shoot they were gone. Notice in the line of gum trees along the river, there are signs of leaves already starting to turn fall colors.
It actually rained on me again and then the sun broke out. However the haze was really harsh and started to interfere with the scene. The view behind me was much better, however even though it’s of Bee Bluff, the horse parking area and all the roads seem to detract from it. I still have some really old 35mm slides of this area right after the park took it over and you can still see the huge horse barn and fences. One other note, you can continue along the make shift trail on the top of Roark, however it’s not an easy hike and does involve some height exposure. You can access the far end easily by crossing the river right below the camping area and hiking up into a small hollow which is visible in this image, look for the light brown bluff at the end. There is a great waterfall here however when it’s running, the Buffalo River tends to be too high to cross without a canoe. To get to the summit from this end, requires one tricky move, one that 20 years ago I made without thinking, now I would want a rope. But later in the afternoon, it’s a better spot to be as the sun is working with you.
After this I headed back to the Hwy 21/43 junction and found a nice herd of Elk. The bulls have all lost the velvet and are getting ready for the rut. The herd I was able to work, had one large bull, a 7×5, strange rack, and several spikes, and then at least 50 cows and calves. The calves are still nursing and I was able to watch that drama unfold. For the first time, I heard a cow call, it’s more of bark than the bulging sound of the bulls, but one cow in particular kept at this until her calf reappeared from some brush at the edge of the field.
It will be most interesting to see what and when the fall colors fully materialize. A lot of the trees along the river are starting to turn fall colors and I saw some of this also up by the millpond. I was surprised by this since it was the last week in August.
There is never a dull moment in the Boxley valley.
Tags: Autumn, Boxley Valley, Fall
